Section 1: Lewis “Kin” Pervis was born in Aiken, South Carolina, and attended Aiken High School. He was one of three children; after his father passed away when Kin was a teenager, his mother continued to work and raise the family as a single mother. He does not recall men around him talking much about WWII as he grew up, and suspects this may have been because they had PTSD.

Section 2: Kin describes himself as a draft-motivated volunteer. He enlisted in the Marines at age 18, in part to avoid being drafted into the Army. Kin knew little about Vietnam before enlisting, apart from a Marine who graduated from Aiken High and spoke to Kin’s history class. Marine boot camp was traumatic. Kin had two drill instructors (DIs); he notes that one was fair, the other was “a psycho” who physically abused recruits. This DI beat people and grabbed Kin by the throat. Other recruits “broke” mentally and physically—Kin recalls one who was hauled out of the barracks because he couldn’t reach a bar and another who the DI broke because the recruit couldn’t read or write. Out of a class of 75, only 37 graduated from boot camp. At graduation, Kin refused to shake the DI’s hand and prayed they never met in Vietnam. Kin confirms that basic training was his first experience in an integrated institution, as Aiken High began to integrate by the time he graduated but not in his classes. In the time between basic training and deployment to Vietnam, Kin was stationed in Virginia for advanced training as a surveyor. One night, he was sent to the Pentagon to put up barricades. The Marines worked all night and left at daylight—the next day, the famous March on the Pentagon took place.  

Section 3: Kin recounts aspects of his service in Vietnam, including his flight to Da Nang in January 1968, the work he conducted in Quang Tri province, his interactions with Vietnamese people, and faith (or lack thereof) in the warzone. His flight to Vietnam was unusual as he flew on a C-130 instead of a civilian airplane. Kin had two phases to his service; in the first, he worked for four months as an artillery surveyor helping his Marine unit conduct strikes. In this role, he experienced a traumatic accident—an artillery piece that had not been secured properly before firing exploded, killing several Marines. After six months back home, his second stint in Vietnam was markedly different; when he returned, he worked as a construction surveyor building bridges, runways, and other military buildings. His exchanges with Vietnamese people contributed heavily to the culture shock he experienced in country. Kin remembers some Vietnamese words and phrases (most of which he deems inappropriate), but one stood out; he recalls “chop-chop,” used by a mamasan who was cutting up a rat for food. In recalling the demographics of those he served with, Kin describes a diverse group of Marines—white, Black, and Hispanic men, lower to middle class, most of whom had a high school education. Finally, in discussing faith in Vietnam, Kin surmises that many people became more agnostic in the warzone, but that he “never met an atheist in a foxhole.”  

Section 4: Kin describes his interactions with Vietnamese people, culture, and creatures. He describes Vietnam as being “all culture shock.” He witnessed abysmal living conditions, including people near starvation who “were friends with whoever gave them a cup of rice.” Kin also dealt with his own afflictions, including jungle rot so bad it bled and had to be treated with surgery. Amid various forms of culture shock, Kin craved saltine crackers and received them in care packages from his mother; they often arrived crushed, so he ate them out of their metal tin in pieces. While missing comforts of home, Kin also dealt with invasive and persistent pests. His first stint in country was spent in a bunker where he “lived with… rats” the size of house cats that would bite during the night, necessitating rabies shots. Kin learned to tie traps down and use peanut butter as bait; otherwise, the rats would walk off with the traps before he could catch them. Finally, Kin discusses the challenges of currency in Vietnam, as the military would nullify older payment certificates (rendering them worthless) in order to combat the thriving black market. 

Section 5: Kin recalls seeing Agent Orange being sprayed frequently. He also talks about his friend, who was a member of the Air Force and loaded Agent Orange onto planes. His friend was often covered in the substance and now has Agent Orange-related health problems.

Section 6: Kin addresses a range of memories in country, from lighthearted superstitions to questions of life and death. He remembers a friend who spent a night with a USO girl and another friend who survived the war with the help of a lucky petrified toad. Reflecting on the most beautiful things he saw in country, Kin highlights the beauty of Vietnamese women. He also broaches his worst memory; six Americans instantly died during an accidental explosion and a seventh man who was on fire died twenty days later. Kin remembers the agony of having to pick up their body parts. When asked if he expected to survive the war, Kin recalls that on his first deployment, he was “novice enough” to believe that he would; during his second tour, he did not expect to survive. Kin elaborates on torturous dangers short of death, noting that occasionally US servicemen got white phosphorous or napalm on them, which he attests to fearing more than death itself.

Section 7: Kin discusses interactions with home while in country. He wrote to and received mail from his mother and uncle, adding that “mail was a big deal.” He recalls a memorable day when he walked by a tent and heard Augusta, Georgia’s “Tiger Radio,” a station he knew from his hometown. Kin’s R&R experience was uncomfortable—it was on a heavy cruiser, which made him nervous because he did not have a foxhole to dive into if the ship got fired on, a testament to the terrors he had become accustomed to in Vietnam.

Section 8: Kin addresses a range of experiences after returning home from Vietnam. Today, he asserts that the war “almost made me a pacifist,” calls it an “exercise in futility,” and surmises that if it was five years later, he would have gone to Canada. He used the VA for PTSD treatment for a while but did not find it helpful. Kin attended the earliest version of the University of South Carolina Aiken at Banksia on the GI Bill before transferring to Augusta University and then USC Columbia, where he graduated in 1974. He remembers feeling some resentment from university staff who were antiwar; even though he was not prowar, he did not want to be treated as if he had done something wrong. Since the war, he has rarely spoken about his time in country.

Section 9: Kin has not been to the wall in DC. He shares that he does not want to see etched on the wall the names of people he knew. 

Section 10: Kin recalls his multiple visits to Vietnam in the years after the war. He returned to Vietnam initially as a tourist and more recently with Habitat for Humanity, building housing in Hanoi. He discusses a memorable experience on a recent visit, in which he met a former member of the Viet Cong; Kin experienced no hostility from the man and gave no hostility in return. Finally, in response to a question about his favorite Vietnam War film or book, Kin notes that he doesn’t watch war movies and has never read a Vietnam War book.